A transgender vow renewal

A transgender vow renewal. Never has a vow renewal been more moving, more meaningful or more significant. Overstated? No!

Karen and Sue have been together for 35 years and married for 25. They are a unit. You get one, you get the other. It’s as simple as that.

Transgender transition

Sue made a male to female transition a few years ago. Karen and Sue stayed together. They worked through it all – and none of us can get close to how those challenges, emotions, doubts, commitment, honesty, love and fear were revealed and resolved. They did it. As a couple. Just as any couple who know one another, are committed to one another and who love one another would.

The story though? That’s a different thing altogether, and this post will be short and very tender.

I was so privileged to work with Karen and Sue – and even at my ripe age I learned so much. About them, about the transgender experience, about me.

What does it matter you might ask? It matters. It just matters. It matters that love is a strong beast and that when you have to dig down to the very foundations of a relationship, love changes everything. And it changes the people around you.

We had a wonderful celebration. Sue got to wear her beautiful dress, and her shoes, and that tiara. We were surrounded by true friends and family. Karen and Sue got to say what they wanted to say to one another in their personalised vows. We even had a socially distanced handfasting shared by ‘the bubble’.

As a celebrant this might have been my only ceremony in this disaster of a year – 2020 – but had I been able to perform the 35 ceremonies i had booked this year, I doubt whether anything would have topped this one. If it had to be one wedding only this year…. I am so glad it was this one.

If you are transgender and want to talk about a ceremony that celebrates who you are please do feel free to contact me. If you need support, information or advice, check this out.